#179: Irresponsible
There’s obviously been a lot of concern about the impact that A.I. programs are going to have on the creative arts, and how such programs remix and repurpose the works of other artists without credit or recompense. And these are all very sound arguments and matters that are going to need to be worked out. By that same token, the history of human innovation proves pretty conclusively that once something is discovered, all efforts to halt its further use are likely to be in vain. Technology changes the world, whether we want it to or not. So it falls to us to make sure those changes are proper and fair and equitable.
All of which is to say that I wound up messing around with Google’s Gemini AI program for a little bit this past week, and with it I generated a couple of things that I’m going to share with you here. Irresponsible? Probably. But for all that the software is undeniably dangerous, it’s also pretty fun to use. And as this remains and will always remain a free feature, well, you get what you pay for.
So I asked Gemini to generate a movie poster graphic for this feature, and this is what it came up with. I have no idea who Rex Fury or Max Midnight are, but both of them have excellent names. And the system wasn’t smart enough not to list my first name twice, a relatively basic error. Still, this is kind of a cool image.
I also asked it to generate a logo for this feature, and this is what it came up with. and I have to say, this is actually pretty good. I’m not going to use it for anything, I’m just sharing it for fun here. But that isn’t bad. Such is the seductive allure of AI.
I had thought about using the Gemini AI to answer this week’s reader questions as well, but when I put in the prompt, it told me that it was “unable to write responses in the style of Tom Brevoort.” So I’m still irreplaceable, it seems. On the downside, that means that I’m going to have to answer all of these questions as usual.
Manqueman
Coincidentally with the reader question thing about when it’s decided not to extend a min-series, my question is: Given the ten issue do or die thing, at what point of dealer orders is it decided to cancel with issue 10? That is, how many issues’ orders are in before the decision made?
And speaking of early cancellation, as some might know, Joe Casey explained how Weapon X-Men got cancelled. Given the circumstances (essentially not sales related), any possibility of the book being resuscitated?
Well, first off, Manqueman, you’re basing your entire question on a series of beliefs and assumptions that aren’t really accurate. While we do tend to approve projects in multiples of five issues, as that’s the sweet spot in terms of the size of our collected editions, that doesn’t mean that a particular project couldn’t be cancelled at any given moment, regardless of what issue it happens to be on. But in most cases, if a project has been approved for a ten-issue run, you know relatively early whether the sales are likely to permit it to go beyond that. So there isn’t any one line of demarcation for this.
I also don’t agree completely with what Joe Casey wrote in his own Newsletter about how and why WEAPON X-MEN came to an end. The circumstances of that series’ demise were absolutely sales related, so I don’t really see if being reinstated any time soon, sorry.
Karl Kesel
Gotta say, I love that NEW WARRIORS #74 cover! But as much as I love it as an IMAGE, I have to wonder how well it works as a COVER. There's really nothing in the upper third/left side of the cover to attract attention— or even define which comic this is— if/when it's shelved in most comic stores— which flies in the face of "accepted cover theory." Still, it does evoke those striking and memorable Infantino/Cardy AQUAMAN covers from the 60s. And, like you said, you likely only got away with it because the book was already canceled.
But this brings up another thing I think about from time to time: how differently do you approach covers today than you did, say, 20 years ago? It seems to me a good portion of modern sales are generated through Preview orders (or whatever remains after the Diamond disaster is sorted out) making a striking IMAGE that's shown with the solicit much more important than worrying about that upper/left side of the cover.
The best answer, of course, is "do both!" But are you more open to "experimental" covers now than you used to be, given the changing market?
Well, it’s always important to give a title every possible advantage, Karl. So keeping the “Dynamic Live Area” in mind when laying out a cover is still considered important. But yes, a much smaller proportion of contemporary sales are being driven by point-of-purchase impulse buys, so while an attractive cover is always important, having that image in the Previews catalog is likely more relevant than having it on the actual books for display.
Joel Zorba
I'm bringing up my question from last week again. So, what are your feelings about the Krakoa era, and also your feelings about how characters like Kurt, Kitty, Hank, Lorna, and Xavier behaved so out of character throughout the run. Is that why, in the current run, books like UXM and EXM are essentially heroic?
Sorry, Joel, but if I didn’t answer a particular question, that doesn’t mean that I missed it. rather, it means that I am choosing not to answer it for one reason or another. In this case, I see no reason to get involved in a feud between those who loved the Krakoa era of X-MEN and those who didn’t like it. I don’t think my personal opinions really matter one way or the other in such an arena. Anyway, you are all always welcome to ask any questions that you may be interested in, but that doesn’t automatically mean that I’m going to respond to absolutely every one.
KyleKatarn
Why should I, as a fan of Phoenix and Jean Grey, pre-order Binary? Sell the book to me, tell me why I should be going out of my way to buy Binary, when Jean Grey is not the leading character in the book. Excite me for your comics, make me want to buy them.
There’s only one reason to pre-order any upcoming comic book, Kyle, and that’s that you think you might enjoy it. Beyond that, I don’t feel a pressing need to do a song-and-dance for you to try to get you to pick that particular series up. The book is solicited, at least one or two covers are out there, the creative team is known as is the generalities of the storyline. If that isn’t enough to hook you, then the book probably isn’t for you.
Mike
is it me or do covers seem much less detailed nowadays? How come that is?
I don’t know that I see any real difference in the amount of detail on today’s covers versus those of the past, Mike. Can you be more specific, maybe point out some examples?
Andrew Albrecht
What’s the process like for when a miniseries does really well and fans want more of the characters/art/writing etc? Is there talk of extending it, relaunching as an ongoing?
Also what’s the best way to show love for a limited series book? Buying variants/trades?
Again here, Andrew, this depends entirely on the project. occasionally, there’ll be a project that can simply continue on directly from what would have been its natural end point as a limited series. More often, though, a certain amount of ramp-up time is necessary in order to produce either a sequel or an unlimited continuation. But when a particular thing has evidenced strong reader interest, we typically try to move swiftly to capitalize on it. And the most effective way to show love for any series regardless of length is to buy it, yes, regardless of format. I wouldn’t say that you need to buy the variants, although it’s always appreciated when you do.
Paul from ASM
How come no one else has done anything with Mariko as the Scarlet Samurai? I thought that was really clever little addition to her character.
No writer so far has particularly evidenced any interest in doing so, Paul, simple as that. I also expect that most people aren’t even aware that she’s alive again after being dead for so long.
Okwaraji
Beyond making the content itself accessible, how do you architect a plan to break the X-Men out of the traditional comics ecosystem and convert the millions of fans of the IP who may love X-Men or certain characters from film, TV, and games into new, regular readers? Is there like a path forward in finding new mass-market channels, new partnerships, fundamentally new ways to position any given comic itself as an entry point to that sort of massive, untapped audience? Branded content? Advertisement through corporate sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Apple, Amazon) to cover a book's marketing budget and costs? New distribution channels (e-commerce, movie theatres/free or discounted gift with the purchase of a movie ticket, supermarkets, Disney+, restaurants, product pack-ins, "prize" or gift-with-purchase inside the packaging of high-volume consumer goods, direct-to-consumer, schools, hospitals, convenience stores, gas stations, book stores, community clinics, pharmacies, etc.)? Partnerships/funding with NGO's or libraries (especially literacy programs or civic engagement)? Production costs (self-funding models similar to lottery tickets)?
You’re talking about efforts that are far beyond the scope of the powers and authority of any single editor, Okwaraji. So I focus on the part that I can control, which is the content of the issues. Beyond that, I leave it to those whose jobs are more concerned about the sort of outreach that you’re talking about. But we explore those sorts of avenues as a company all the time. For example, we announced a deal through Webtoons that will see Marvel (and other Disney properties) made available on that platform in a vertical scrolling format. That’s a platform that has millions of users who may well be interested in properly curated Marvel content, so we’ll see where that takes us.
J. Kevin Carrier
What was the meaning behind the "5+5" imprint?
It wasn’t 5 + 5, Kevin, it was S + S. My home-grown efforts were “published” as Sensational Comics at that time, and Litwack’s imprint was Spectacular. Since ATTACK FORCE was a joint venture between us, it became S + S.
JV
are you still a theatre guy Tom? Or do you prefer the home viewing experience these days?
No, JV, I’m afraid that particularly since the pandemic, I’ve virtually stooped going to see films in the cinema. I did venture out to see SUPERMAN last month, but before that you really have to go back a ways. I didn’t even see THE FLASH in theaters, which surprised some people who know me. But the window to streaming these days is so short, and the environment in the movie houses isn’t so much better than my own set-up that I’ve grown accustomed to just waiting for most films.
Dave Lowe
what is the current situation with the Inhumans and will we see them again any time soon beyond occasional Lockjaw cameos in Jeff the Land Shark books?
Why, you’re seeing them right this moment, Dave—or would be if you were following IMPERIAL. So maybe give that a look.
Stefan
If Dan Buckley wanted to publish Attack Force today, other than yourself, who would be your dream writer/artist combo to put on it?
I don’t really have an answer for this, Stefan, largely because I don’t tend to really think about such things. And if I wasn’t doing it, what would be the point?
Seastar
Can I ask about what you think might be reasons the cosmic section of Marvel (and really DC too) has needed so many revival attempts? Is it a lack of a lynchpin character? A desire to bring those space characters to Earth more frequently and taking away from the cosmic setting in the process? Just a lack of interest from people to do spacefaring stories?
I think it’s just proven difficult to interest enough readers to be invested on a long-term basis on events that are transpiring so remotely from the world that we know, Seastar. There are those that love such stories, and there are those who love some of them. But in general, there haven’t been enough readers to keep them solvent for the long haul.
Leigh Hunt
Do these sorts of events generally see an uptick of new readers vs people dropping off?
Leigh, the only reason that we do these sorts of stories so often is that in general sales get stronger during them, not the opposite. So I understand some fans feeling as though they’re disruptive, and they may even be. But the sales data is pretty conclusive, and we need to make our decisions based on what readers do rather than what they say.
Jeff Ryan
one of your homemade characters was named Nightwing? Inquiring minds want to know how different he was than the Distinguished Competition's Nightwing!
Completely different character, Jeff. The ATTACK FORCE Nightwing was more akin to a gargoyle, a furry winged mutant who in some ways resembled Man-Bat. A monster hero.
Kelly Brown
I was wondering are there any abandoned or cut story ideas from past X-Men runs that you’ve always found intriguing, or that you’d be interested in revisiting and finishing? For example, in Claremont’s late ’90s run (Uncanny X-Men #381), there’s a moment where Jean shows Cable a hidden cave of treasure tied to the Phoenix, which she and Xavier discovered when she was a child. It seemed to hint at a possible Phoenix religion/cult storyline, as well as untold adventures between Jean and Xavier before the original X-Men formed. I’ve always been curious how that thread might have played out.
Not to be disrespectful to anything that’s come before, Kelly, but I find that I’m much more interested in moving forward and developing new storylines and new ideas than I am revisiting the business of years or decades past.
Hank
With the end of Imperial #3 showcasing the return of a few very missed members of the Marvel universe, is there a possibility we could see them in an ongoing story of their own in the near future?
Only time will tell, Hank. Well, that and the end of IMPERIAL.
Cian McDarby
Some mutants have weirdly specific powers. See, Layla Miller’s soulless necromancy (still waiting for the BIG X-EVENT where the X-Men must battle that one butterfly that does not have a soul anymore from one of the early issues of that run). Is there any mutants where you think “That’s a weird power where it feels like a situation where it’s the right move would come up once in a blue moon?”
As an aside, Hickman co-writing a book about the Mojoverse and presumably (I’m guessing because I would be VERY upset if he’s not in the bloody book named after him) Longshot book is weird, especially as a tie in to an Age of so and so event. I’m not complaining but it’s an interesting move. Can you share how that came about? He come to you wanting to get in on some hot Revelation action or one of the co-writers or did you or some other configuration?
I tend to find the situation the opposite of what you describe, Cian. There’s a certain amount of inevitable power creep that happens where suddenly every character becomes all-powerful. it’s a real problem from the point of view of maintaining dramatic stakes. So I’d kind of welcome some more mutants with powers that were only good in certain circumstances. In terms of LONGSHOTS, that project was an outgrowth of one of our Editorial Summits. At that particular meeting, the X-Office ran down the broad strokes of AGE OF REVELATION for everybody because we knew that we were interested in having a certain number of projects throughout the greater Marvel Universe and not just X-Books. Afterwards, Jonathan and Gerry came back with the idea that became LONGSHOTS—I think the title was my idea—and so it got set up. Same thing is true of RADIOACTIVE SPIDER-MAN and IRON & FROST and one or two others.
Laurie Collins
I’m wondering if Longshots was an unfinished Hickman project that has been repurposed into an AoR tie-in by Duggan.
Afraid it isn’t, Laurie, sorry. It might have some ideas in it that Jonathan had in his back pocket, sure, but it was originated by Jonathan and Gerry as an AGE OF REVELATION series. And they’re both actively working on it together.
Leigh Hunt
I don’t study solicitations that carefully so hadn’t realized there won’t be any Outliers at all for a few months. I’m sure that will please some but it might annoy me.
So who said there’s not going to be any Outliers, Leigh? They’ll all be around—though not all necessarily in the places you might expect. So watch the skies.
Off The Wall
What you see here is a sketch of Suletta Mercury, the protagonist of MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: THE WITCH FROM MERCURY that artist Phillip Tan sent to me after we had talked about the anime a little bit on social media. It was very nice of him, and it’s a great little piece. It can fly! It can dance! Aerial!
Misspent Youth
GAMBIT was done around 1981 or so, and was another co-production between my self and my friend Israel Litwack. It’s got a lot more of his sensibilities in it than mine, very much influenced by things like Doug Moench’s MOON KNIGHT. Gambit was a professional gambler by day who donned a mask to go out and bust heads in a very stereotypical Las Vegas setting. The story in this one issue was all about drug abuse, a subject that neither Litwack nor myself had any real experience with, so it’s a pretty comical take on the whole thing. But you can immediately see what we were being influenced by.
This was the first story that we ever submitted professionally. At a Creation convention in New York City, I had made the acquaintance of Gerry Giovinco, who was a would-be artist and creator himself. Gerry and his college buddies—they were all years older than I was—were putting together their own comic book company, which eventually saw the light of day as Comico. Knowing that their first book was going to be an anthology series, Litwack and I sent our efforts in to the nascent Comico offices for consideration, and received a shattering-but-accurate critique from artist Vince Argondezzi. Which didn’t stop us from continuing to try to make comics, but it did knock the wind out of our sales for a brief moment. Par for the course of trying to get into the industry.
Behind the Curtain
This week’s entry isn’t even entirely sensible to me, but it’s a fascinating artifact of an era. I wound up with it when I inherited the late Mark Gruenwald’s AVENGERS files—it was stuck in a folder therein. for a time, every year Mark would put together one of these comical quizzes summarizing the events of the previous year. It’s really inside baseball stuff. And since I wasn’t on staff in 1985, some of the jokes go by me as well. Nevertheless, here is Mark’s 1985 Staff Quiz:
Pimp My Wednesday
And now it is actually song-and-dance time. so here’s what’s on the jukebox this week:
UNCANNY X-MEN #20 by Gail Simone and Luciano Vecchio takes Wolverine and Ransom on a road trip to the latter’s home in Argentina, where secrets of his past are revealed. Plus, there’s an inordinate amount of punching, hitting and stabbing!
And in Associate Editor Annalise Bissa’s corner, we have IMPERIAL WAR: EXILES coming from Steve Foxe, Jonathan Hickman and Francesco Manna which picks up on the events of X-MANHUNT and follows Charles Xavier and Lilandra as they get involved in the war breaking out all across civilized space. So it’s both an X-Book and a space book!
A Comic Book On Sale 30 Years Ago Today, August 31, 1995
I would up being the person who put out GREEN GOBLIN #1 and who edited the series that followed in its wake. But the book was actually put together by outgoing Spider-Man editor Danny Fingeroth. By the time I got there, the creative elements were all already in place and I believe work had begun on this inaugural issue. The idea originated with writer Tom DeFalco, who felt that there was enough awareness of the Green Goblin as a character that the identity might make for a good expansion of the Spider-Man line of titles. Danny made a good and interesting selection in pairing DeFalco up with artist Scott McDaniel, who had been getting good notices for his work on DAREDEVIL. Tom tended to most often work with very traditional sorts of artists such as Ron Frenz or Paul Ryan. But McDaniel gave the series a more modern flavor. The new Green Goblin was Phil Urich, the slacker nephew of Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich. Ben was writing a book during this period about the history of the Green Goblin and the different men who had adopted that costumed persona. In helping out his uncle with research, Phil stumbled upon another one of Norman Osborn’s hidden Goblin lairs, got saturated with Goblin serum that made him stronger and more durable than normal, and found a cache of Goblin weapons and a new glider, as well as a goblin mask whose electronics triggered the goblin serum within his body. So Phil became the new Green Goblin, trying to find some way to turn these strange powers to his own best advantage while getting embroiled in super hero/super villain conflicts—at least some of which were a result of people assuming that he was one of the earlier criminal Goblins himself. It was a weird series, but pretty fun, and free of a lot of the entanglements of the main Spidey books at a point where the Clone Saga was eating every storyline in sight. The series only lasted for 13 issues, though, and it was cancelled in part because new EIC Bob Harras intended to resurrect Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin as a way to put a mastermind behind the Clone shenanigans and bring them to a close. This first issue had a holographic green foil cover enhancement, which I limited to the logo and the cover copy. I had thought about also popping it into the character’s eyes, but I was afraid that the foil would obscure his gaze too much. if it had worked, though, it would have been pretty cool.
A Comic I Worked On That Came Out On This Date
SECRET AVENGERS #16 came out on August 31, 2011 and was the first of six issues of the book written by Warren Ellis. Warren had been recruited for the job by outgoing writer Ed Brubaker, and he came in with a typically unique approach to the series. Having previously found great success in pioneering widescreen comics with Bryan Hitch on THE AUTHORITY, Warren intended to go the exact opposite way in this title. SECRET AVENGERS would be hyper-compressed, with a complete-though-massive story in every single issue. Each book would also be drawn by a different artist, which became a small challenge in itself, trying to line up the right artists with the right material. This first one was drawn by Jamie McKelvie, with a cover by Warren’s PLANETARY collaborator John Cassaday. The group was a clandestine team of Avengers working for new SHIELD head Steve Rogers, and each issue was about a specific mission that the group took on. Warren innovated the series tag line as well: Run the Mission! Don’t get seen! Save the World! He was really good at sloganeering of that sort. The hope was that Warren would settle in for an extended run, but he wound up having conflict with one of his early collaborators, and that soured him on the experience and he chose to take his leave after the initial six-issue commitment was fulfilled. But those six issues are really great, and well worth seeking out as back issues.
The New Warriors Chronicles
We’ve come to the end at last, but before we get to the final issue of the first NEW WARRIORS series, we start with a comment from WARRIORS writer Evan Skolnick:
Evan Skolnick
To answer your question, I never got as far as thinking of a cool name for Spaceknight Nova other than Spaceknight Nova. All the cool names were taken by then, anyway, as I apparently demonstrated throughout my run. ;-)
For this final issue, after having done a cover with no logo, I opted to go out with the previous logo, which I’d always really liked. I only changed it in an effort to attract some additional eyeballs to what we were doing, so with us having reached our curtain call, it seemed proper to send the book out on its best.
Evan and Patrick wrap everything up nicely in this oversized finale. Evan even continues a tradition established by Fabian Nicieza before him, bringing back the Mad Thinker and showcasing his interest in the New Warriors. As I remember things, before revealing what the Thinker’s interest was all about, Evan consulted with Fabian about what his plans would have been and stuck very close to them.
We also get Firestar proposing to Justice, the seeming death of Garthan Saal and the return of Richard Rider’s Nova powers and identity. Timeslip also appears to lose her powers in this story, though she reappeared later with them intact, so apparently they weren’t as gone as we thought. And there’s a hat tip to the next thing that Evan was going to do with Turbo, which was to have Mickey and Carlton/Hindsight begin to share the use of the Torpedo armor in the manner of her and Mike. And we get the reconciliation of all of the major players, particularly Nova and Night Thrasher, and the reunion of Rich and Namorita. Plus the requisite punching and kicking. So it’s a relatively solid goodbye outing.
We’d wind up using Justice and Firestar in AVENGERS once I began editing that title, but my planned NEW WARRIORS spin-off, which I had timed to happen after AVENGERS #25 was scuttled by EIC Bob Harras giving the green light to a different and unrelated NEW WARRIORS revival in a different office. And while I’ve touched the characters here and there over the years since then, I’ve never again done so with all of them as a group. All of the New Warriors revivals since then have been without me. The one minor exception was a single page that Fabian Nicieza wrote for MARVEL COMICS #1001, the spill-over book for the anniversary MARVEL COMICS #1000.
End of the day, while this run was far from perfect and we made a couple of ill-considered moves, I’m reasonably happy looking back at it. The title did embody the sort of feeling that I had wanted it to have, and it holds up pretty well in retrospect. Or at least that’s my view on it.
This final issue also ran the above sign-offs from Evan and Patrick, which seem like a good note to go out on here.
Monofocus
Lots of stuff to talk about this time. To start, I read WILL EISNER: A COMICS BIOGRAPHY by Steve Weiner and Dan Mazur which had been sitting on my shelf for several months. It’s tough to do a biography of Eisner that reveals new information given the number that have already been done (including Eisner’s own biographically-based works) but I thought this was a good production all around. The artwork had some real character and the narrative was well conveyed. It did feel a bit like the later years of Eisner’s life post-Spirit got a bit compressed, but you’re always going to have to make choices in a work like this. So I thought it was good.
Also enjoyable was BUZ SAWYER Volume 5, the fifth collection of the long-running newspaper strip by Roy Crane. This was the period when the strip entered the 1950s, having started out as a World War II adventure strip and becoming more civilian-oriented after that conflict ended. Here, Buz winds up back in the Air Force as a test pilot, and includes an early story concerning the then-current fascination with pilots seeing flying saucers. The artwork, as always, is stripped down and attractive—Crane could draw—and the characters and situations are all lively and interesting. These were the sorts of stories that kept readers coming back to the funny pages in their local newspaper every day to see what might happen next.
On a more disappointing note, I feel as though STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS has completely lost the plot this season. I adored the first two years of the show, but this latest outing has wound up trying to duplicate the show’s biggest successes of prior seasons without hitting the mark. In particular, the series has become comfortable with doing greater and greater amounts of outright comedy, to the point where it becomes difficult to take the situations and their stakes seriously, or to relate to any of the characters as anything more than broadly-drawn types. This week’s episode in particular, which saw four of the crew genetically transformed into Vulcans, was positively painful to get through, and lacked any redeeming resolution at the end. It was just hackneyed and bad. It’s a real shame, especially given that it’s presently the only STAR TREK series that’s active (although STARFLEET ACADEMY is coming, I suppose.) Bleh.
I also wound up listening to bits of CONAN O’BRIEN NEEDS A FRIEND, the podcast dedicated to Conan and his team speaking with people from around the industry that he’s interested in. It’s a very good, very casual show, and becomes a bit of a nice spotlight for the guests, most of whom seem comfortable enough with Conan to let their hair down a little bit and have fun. Listening put me in the frame of mind once again to remember just how bizarre and unlikely O’Brien’s success was in the first place. He’d only had limited experience as a performer when he was tapped to take over LATE NIGHT following David Letterman’s departure, and that series stayed on life support for three or four years, being renewed on an almost weekly basis. I like Conan from the start, though the late hour meant that I would go through spurts where I’d watch him but then would drift away until something—a particular guest or event—brought me back. He’s a very likable performer.
And today I read THE KNIVES, the latest CRIMINAL OGN from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. There’s no more reliable creative team presently working in comics, and THE KNIVES was another great read. You can see where Ed is channeling a bunch of his own recent life experiences, and it’s a typically well-crafted character study and noir mystery. Ed’s been showrunning the television adaptation of CRIMINAL for Amazon Prime for the past while, and I’m consequently hopeful for it, but just a shade skeptical as well. so much of what makes these books work is the internal narration, the sense of what is going through the main character’s mind as events play out, that intimate connection. And that’s a tough thing to pull off in live action. But we’ll eventually see how well Brubaker does with it. And in the meantime, the books are all excellent.
Finally, I discovered last night that my cable system (yes, I still have a cable system, shut up.) has picked up MeTV TOONS, which was a delightful surprise. I celebrated by watching around ten minutes of a SPEED RACER episode, a show that was an absolute favorite when I was three-years old. I was happy to see that the opening titles had been restored, eliminating the out-of-place modern logo that had been added to prints in the 1990s. I likely won’t wind up watching a whole lot on the station, but it’s somehow comforting to me that it’s there. It’s almost entirely programmed with cartoons from my upbringing—I watched an episode of UNDERDOG this after noon (but sped through the King Leonardo and Go-Go Gophers segments) and enjoyed it as a novelty if nothing else.
Posted at TomBrevoort.com
Yesterday, I wrote about the Last Starman Story.
Five years ago, I wrote about the British 1967 Marvel Story Book Annual
And ten years ago, I spotlighted this Great Cover
September is just over the horizon, so this mad, maddening year is creeping ever closer to its completion, strangely enough! But we’re going to keep on keepin’ on in these parts. So stop back again in a week and we’ll have more of this same nonsense loaded up and waiting for you.
Hat’s All, Folks!
Tom B
Since you brought up generative AI, what is Marvel's policy regarding its use? I don't want to kick off a whole debate here, but I hope the answer is "completely forbidden in the creation of comics."
"the history of human innovation proves pretty conclusively that once something is discovered, all efforts to halt its further use are likely to be in vain." That's why we're all wearing Google glasses and buying NFTs with Bitcoin.