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The Future of the Comic Book
by Mike Baron
I have been to the mountaintop.
I have been to the mountaintop. I have seen the future of the
comic. It's two big stone tablets. That's the hardbound version. Future
comic books will be printed on seal skin. Marvel will try to save money by
printing on cat skin.
The legalization of hemp will make paper comics affordable
again. And interesting. The Peoples' Republic of China will challenge DC's
and Marvel's copyright and trademark of the term "superhero." Joe Quesada
will replace Simon on American Idol. Kurt Busiek and George Perez announce
a new maxi-series: The Manhattan White Pages. Seventeen year-old penciling
superstar Swipe Philo will take over the X-Men. Bob Wayne will challenge
Joe Quesada to a duel. The New York Times will switch to an all-graphic
format and hire Ted Rall as editor in chief. The Nobel Committee will
confer the Peace Prize on Tom Tomorrow. The Physics prize will go to Mike
Nasser, whose blend of Judaism, Christianity and Islam has resulted in clean
fusion energy. Art Spiegelman will pick up the Literary, for "In the Shadow
of No Towers."
Wolfgang Petersen will
direct The Silver Surfer starring Jude Law. Spike Lee will film The Black
Panther starring Wesley Snipes. Oliver Stone will film Green Lantern/Green
Arrow, starring Ben Affleck and Sean Penn. Terry Zwigoff will film The
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers starring Alec, Stephen, and Dan Baldwin.
Quentin Tarantino will film Heroes for Hire starring Samuel L. Jackson and
Uma Thurman. McQ will film Conan the Undefeated starring Brad Pitt.
The Church of Scientology will start a comic book line adapting
the works of L. Ron Hubbard. Now Comics will go to all reprints and change
its name to Then. Kitchen Sink will return with a new, ongoing monthly
series by Kitchen himself, "Gotta Draw." Oni will commission John Madden to
helm "All Madden Team Comics." Fantagraphics will purchase CrossGen's
assets and reboot all titles with Fantagraphics artists. Jim Woodring will
write and draw Sojourn. Gary Panter will do Way of the Rat. Roberta
Gregory will take over El Cazador. Chuck Dixon is the new writer on Rawhide
Kid. Steve Buscemi and Macauley Culkin will star in an American version of
Lone Wolf and Cub.
Rob Liefeld will join the Joe Kubert School as an instructor.
John Byrne will become DC's editor in chief and will write and draw every
book himself. Jim Shooter will surface as head of the European Union.
Archie & Jughead will switch to an all-manga format. CBS will switch to an
all-manga format. Dark Horse will switch to an all-manga format. What am I
saying?! They already have. Jimmy Palmiotti will write and John Romita Jr.
will draw the comic version of The Sopranos. The Olsen Twins will write
Binge and Purge, a new superhero title, for Vertigo. Bill O'Reilly will out
Vertigo as a satanist front.
Seriously
There will always be a printed color comic book because
collectors demand it. However, the internet has already changed the way we
get our information. The Comics Buyer's Guide has gone from weekly to
monthly and is trying to compete with Wizard. They are now widely
distributed on the newsstand and didn't used to be. Krause is patient and
will probably give it at least a year in the new format, and Krause also has
excellent newsstand distribution credentials. As a news source, it has been
eclipsed by comicon.com, comicbookresources.com, newsarama.com, icv2.com,
and countless other sites.
Is anybody making money off web comics? Hard to say. Steven
Grant points to moderntales.com, a veritable Sunday Comic Section of bright
new faces. Gene Yang's monkey tale may represent the future of web comics:
simple, clean animation style. Langfield and Grug's "Charlie Redeye"
follows a similar animation-friendly style. The problem starts with Donna
Barr's "Desert Peach." Her style is too busy for the screen. The careful
line-work gets lost. Makes you want to see the comic on paper. Here's
where web comics fail: they can't deliver the art experience of print on
paper. Oh yeah, some nerd with teeth like a cowcatcher is going to insist
that within a few years computer screen and print quality will rival
Quebecor's finest. Ain't gonna happen. Because anything you print out at
home is not a collectible. Collectibles are made elsewhere. If everybody
had one, they wouldn't be collectible. Image's compilation TPB Flight is a
compilation of comics that first appeared on the web.
Mike Manley's actionplanet.com rocks. An old animation hand,
Manley understands the importance of simple graphics, bright colors, and
music. Associates include Bret Blevins, Jerry Ordway, and other creators.
Webcomics.com has lots of advertisers, links to related sites such as toy
brokers. If you want to know why web comics are struggling, look at
dieselsweeties.com. Who wants to look at that? Keenspot.com is another
clearing house for college-level strips. There's some art happening here.
The printed comic is moving upscale. Trade paper backs, which
used to represent the highest evolution of the species, are now the starting
point. Sandman Book of Dreams is the standard. DC has already realized
this.
Belladonna 1
Writer: Brian Pulido
Artist: Clint Hilinski
Publisher: Avatar Press, Price: $3.99 US
Avatar's fielding a raft of creator-owned projects. Pulido has
Belladonna and Lady Death, Warren Ellis has four new titles. Belladonna 1
is a handsome package with beautiful, moody art. It's straight-forward
revenge-in 951 a.d., Norse "filth" invade an Irish castle on Colleen's
wedding day, killing everybody but Colleen, who reappears as avenging angel,
slicing, dicing, skewering and muttering dire imprecations. Although
expertly done, and sure to be a hit with some, Belladonna suffers from
unlikelihood. Interiors of peasant homes are large and spotless, as if the
Merry Maids have just left.
© 2004 Avatar Press
Belladonna, formerly Colleen, dispatches hairy Norsemen with the
ease of Jet Li wading through an army of incompetents. She snaps forearms
like Kirstie Alley breaking a breadstick. Whence came this skill and
strength? Maybe Pulido's saving it for a future issue. Ireland is a cold
country. I don't buy Belladonna running around in an ur-bikini. Maybe it
happens during an especially warm night. Just once, I'd like to see the
protagonist dress appropriately for a cold climate.
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Mike Baron is the creator of the award winning comic book Nexus and
during his career has written an enormous variety of comics from The Flash to The Punisher. He is currently writing Faro Korbit for AP Comics, just released a Green Lantern novel for Byron Preiss (available on Amazon.com through the link on the right), and is working on several projects
destined to change the face of pop culture in his secret skunkworks.
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